There is a saying that “art is food for the soul.” And from all the recent initiatives and events coming out of the music, arts and culture portfolio at the Azrieli Foundation, this couldn’t ring more true.  

One of the most recent initiatives is the new Azrieli Music Arts and Culture Centre (AMACC), which launched this past September.   

AMACC will act as a catalyst, key funder and strategic partner in creating a resilient, impactful and connected arts sector. It will deepen the Foundation’s work of discovering, elevating and amplifying creative voices. It will also support arts engagement for all Canadians, from accessing quality arts education to enjoying the arts as a vehicle for improved health and well-being.  

“AMACC is our long-awaited umbrella strategy for the arts. It will unite grant-making, sector collaborations and long-range initiatives. Programs, such as the Azrieli Music Prizes and others still to be imagined, will fall under the AMACC umbrella. Together, they will allow us to create a huge impact.  Through AMACC, we will ensure more Canadians of all ages enjoy a deeper relationship with the arts,” says Dr. Sharon Azrieli, CQ, Chair of the AMACC Advisory Council.  

The time was ripe for such a bold transformation. Since 2014, the Foundation’s music, arts, and culture support has grown exponentially. The Azrieli Foundation has also grown its Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) into Canada’s largest competition of its kind. The Prizes offer opportunities for creating, performing and celebrating excellence in music composition.   

AMACC is currently gearing up for the 10^th anniversary of AMP. On November 2, 2023, the new 2024 Laureates were announced. For this round, the Prizes sought scores and proposals for choral works – including up to four additional instruments and/or soloists – across four prize categories.  

The 2024 winning composers are Yair Klartag for the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music; Joseph Bardanashvili for the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music; Jordan Nobles for the Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music; and Juan Trigos for the inaugural Azrieli Commission for International Music.  

These laureates will receive the premieres of their outstanding compositions at the AMP Gala Concert on October 28, 2024.  

(Banner photo: Danylo Bobyk)

To spur actionable policies and support the millions of Canadian caregivers and care providers, the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) held its first Caregiving Summit in Ottawa earlier this month.

The event, held November 6 to 8, brought together 350 stakeholders in person and an additional 150 online to learn from leaders, policymakers, people with lived experience and researchers – all to lay the groundwork for a Canadian caregiving strategy.  

“Who will care for our loved ones? Who will care for us as we grow older? Just as importantly, who will care for the caregivers? And who will care for the care providers?” asked André Picard, health reporter for The Globe and Mail, in his keynote address on the first morning. “Answering these questions matters because the answers will profoundly impact us, individually and collectively.”  

Over the next three days, various people on numerous panels and keynotes gave input into this significant question. They also addressed the social, psychological and financial impacts caregivers and care providers face nationwide, including LGBTQ+, Indigenous and racialized communities. 

“If all caregivers took a week off, the care systems in Canada would collapse before noon on the first day,” says Liv Mendelsohn, Executive Director of CCCE, which the Azrieli Foundation founded in May 2022. “Public policy reform is needed to address the care crisis in Canada fully, for eventually all of us will be a caregiver or need to receive care.” 

One event highlight was the Parliamentary reception, where all parties discussed these critical issues. As MP Melissa Lantsman said at the event, “Caregiving is not a party issue; it’s a Canadian issue.” 

And the work continues. With the Summit concluded, the CCCE will further its journey toward making Canada the best place in the world to give and receive care.

In November 2021, the Azrieli Foundation and the Weizmann Institute of Science announced the establishment of the Azrieli Institute for Brain and Neural Sciences.  

With the Foundation’s leading donation of US$50 million, the Weizmann Institute campus in Rehovot, Israel will be home to a new flagship neuroscience research institute, housed in a state-of-the art building. This is the latest chapter in the Azrieli Foundation’s long-time partnership with Weizmann; prior to this gift, the Foundation gave nearly US$30 million for a range of Weizmann research endeavors, facilities and fellowships. 

Prof. Alon Chen is the President of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and an active neuroscientist who studies the neurobiology of stress. We spoke with Prof. Chen about the new initiative and his vision for its future. 

Azrieli Foundation: It has been a year since the announcement of the Azrieli Institute for Brain and Neural Sciences. Can you talk about any developments? 

Alon Chen: It was a fantastic year of fundraising for this important project. We have already raised 91 per cent of the cost of the construction of the building, which is on schedule to start in July or August, 2023. In brain and neuroscience, the medical need is so immense, and it’s such a complex system, that it was relatively easy to excite the community around the world. 

We also made some structural changes to prepare for the academic launch such as organizing our approximately 40 neuroscience research groups on campus into two departments – the Department for Brain Sciences and the Department for Molecular Neuroscience – which will enhance the capabilities of the Azrieli Institute. 

AF: The announcement emphasized the creative interfaces that can emerge when scientists from various disciplines work under one roof. Can you give an example from your own research where physical proximity to scientists from other areas of expertise made an impact? 

AC: Our scientists have the freedom to explore. Especially within the domain of neuroscience – this is such a multidisciplinary field that you need people not only from the biomedical fields to provide their expertise, but also from physics, math, computer science, psychology and so on. From my own experience in biomedical neuroscience, I can give two examples. 

My lab is studying the brain’s responses to stressful stimuli and how this is related to different psychopathologies, and we are collecting a lot of behavioural and physiological data. The collaboration with Prof. Elad Schneidman’s lab allowed us to establish mathematical models to extract knowledge from the vast amount of data that we are generating. We managed to develop a much more sophisticated approach and ensure the preclinical animal research stage more closely resembles the human pathology. This would not have happened if Elad and I hadn’t crossed paths in the corridor and gone to lunch or coffee to discuss these concepts together – which is exactly what we did. 

The second and shorter example is collaborating with clinicians – in my case, psychiatrists. The clinical perspective totally changes the way we approach certain questions. Human and clinical data allow us to expand the type of science we are doing. 

AF: Weizmann has a strong vision of “science for the benefit of humanity,” and is internationally renowned for excellence in fundamental research. What is your approach to translating discoveries from basic science into knowledge that benefits people?  

AC: We all agree that it’s important to find solutions for Alzheimer’s or ALS, but our approach is not to develop a treatment per se. Our aim is to develop solutions through a very deep mechanistic understanding of the systems. And this recipe has been working for almost 90 years now. It may take two or three decades to see the impact – but eventually, it’s creating huge leaps in knowledge that benefit humanity. 

AF: You became the president of Weizmann in December of 2019, only a few months before the effects of the pandemic were felt worldwide. How did that affect your vision of what you wanted to do at the Institute? 

AC: The Weizmann never really stopped working. With all the limitations, we kept the science going, and we succeeded in doing so even though we periodically had to reduce the number of people on campus dramatically to keep everyone healthy. The pandemic didn’t change my scientific vision, but it helped shape part of it in the sense that the public and policymakers and politicians realized that science was responsible for the solution – and that science can and should actively be promoted on the world stage. While COVID was an extremely unfortunate thing, the turn of events in the last few years has put us in a position to further promote our scientific vision for the Institute. 

When the pandemic started, we had only two research groups working on viruses, and within two or three weeks, our scientists initiated more than 60 research projects on COVID – representing 25 per cent of all the research on campus. Not because we asked them to, but because they had the freedom of philosophy, and they just decided they wanted to take part. In response to our scientists’ initiatives, we established a fund for COVID research, and our supporters worldwide contributed, within weeks. We are very proud of what we have achieved over these two and a half years. 

AF: One of your first official visits as president was to Canada in February 2020. Why did you feel compelled to make Canada one of your first destinations in your new role? And how do you envision the collaboration between Israeli and Canadian institutions going forward? 

AC: We have an extremely strong community of friends of the Weizmann Institute in Canada, which encouraged me to visit and promote my scientific vision in my first months as president. Susan Stern, CEO of Weizmann Canada, is doing amazing work building and nurturing these relationships. We also have a long-term relationship with the Azrieli Foundation in Canada – as you know, this is not the first gift. [Other Azrieli investments at Weizmann include the Azrieli Institute for Systems Biology and the Azrieli National Institute for Human Brain Imaging and Research, and a major donation for Fragile X research.] 

Many of our scientists have ongoing collaborations with Canadian scientists, and we are trying to expand this as much as we can. Recently, we had a terrific delegation of Canadian university presidents who visited multiple universities and institutions in Israel, including Weizmann. The Azrieli Foundation was a sponsor of this visit. I am already in communication with several of university presidents to develop future partnerships. 

AF: The Azrieli Foundation, Weizmann Canada and the Weizmann Institute of Science have maintained a special partnership over many years. What makes this an effective philanthropic partnership? 

AC: It’s a combination of trust, goals and vision. I think the Weizmann Institute and the Azrieli Foundation have a very similar approach toward science: curiosity-based research, academic freedom, a focus on scientific excellence. 

It’s easy to work with people who really have the passion for science, and it’s strongly reflected in my discussions with the Azrieli Foundation team. They have a strong passion for neuroscience – and for me, it’s easy, because I’m a neuroscientist – but regardless, this is clearly the last frontier in biomedical research. Solutions will only come from a foundational understanding of this complex machine, by bringing together the brightest minds from different fields of research and providing them with the resources and the right setting to generate new knowledge – together. The campus is extremely excited about this initiative.  

As for the establishment of the Azrieli Institute for Brain and Neural Sciences, it goes without saying that such a visionary donation creates momentum, inspires others and sets a high bar for giving. 

This interview has been condensed for length and clarity. 

Opening doors to opportunity for all involves breaking down barriers — and a lack of access to meaningful and supportive employment is one of many systemic barriers faced by neurodivergent people.  In Canada, there are around 500,000 working age adults with intellectual disabilities or autism; yet approximately 88% are unemployed or underemployed. 

Embracing neurodiversity in the workplace not only means those who may have been traditionally denied opportunities can access employment; it means a more skilled and creative workforce.  

The concept of “business for the greater good” is what informs social enterprises, which aim to achieve social, cultural or environmental benefits by selling goods and services, feeding profits back into their mission. An important subcategory — the employment social enterprise— creates opportunities for people facing barriers into the labour market by providing training, employment and wraparound supports; this is a natural fit for bringing inclusivity principles and practices into the workplace. 

In February 2020, the Azrieli Foundation arranged a workshop, run by Start Co., to help organizations create a social enterprise business plan.  

“I’ll never forget the intensity of that first (and only) in-person meeting,” says Eve Rochman, Founding Director of Zera Café, a not-for-profit social enterprise catering business with a neurodiverse staff.  

At the time, Zera Café was very early in its development. Rochman says networking with more mature, like-minded organizations helped her envision possibilities for the future.  

Rochman’s most significant takeaway from that session was “how important it was to be very clear and specific about what we were doing, and then be prepared to justify and defend the plan we had to make it happen.”  

As the organization grows, she still makes use of the presentation deck and elevator pitch she created that day — and continues to benefit from participating in the Social Enterprise Network that was developed after the first workshop. 

Since late 2020, the Foundation has facilitated a network of organizations that are in various stages of developing social enterprises. This Social Enterprise Network currently has more than 30 members (including both for-profit and not-for-profit entities from across Ontario and Quebec), all with the goal of providing adults with neurodiverse needs with meaningful and supportive employment as they enter the labour market. Members meet quarterly to share knowledge and resources, develop new skills and discuss things like business development and strategic partnerships, mental health and business law.   

The Network is led by Orly Fruchter, Manager of Neurodiverse Initiatives at the Azrieli Foundation. She works alongside a different co-chair for each meeting, generating the content collaboratively and adapting it to meet the group’s needs. The Network helps enterprises succeed, and, in turn, empowers them to hire more adults with disabilities. Connections made among members have already led to several business collaborations. Courier service Good Foot Delivery hired the cleaning crew from Community Living Toronto for its offices, and Toronto’s DANI hired Montreal-based Promo21 to print silk screen reusable bags for a fundraiser.  

The Network is helping aspiring and existing social enterprises harness resources and maximize their impact. As a result, these businesses are enabling neurodivergent individuals to find meaningful and equitable employment opportunities and participate fully in their communities.